“I feel like he just doesn’t take it all—or himself—too seriously, but then can make these really beautiful, high-luxury things,” said Sofia Coppola of Marc Jacobs, her friend of more than 20 years, to Vogue’s Jonathan van Meter. “Those two qualities are usually not contained in one person.” For this month’s “A Man for All Seasons,” Van Meter interviewed the “engaging—and drolly opinionated—as ever” Jacobs who was in the midst of putting together his spring 2012 show for Louis Vuitton. The new profile on the fashion powerhouse is just one of Jacobs’s many appearances in Vogue throughout the years, starting with 1986, when he was featured as a relatively unknown, but up-and-coming New York designer. Now, nearly 25 years later, Jacobs has become one of fashion’s most recognizable names, heading three lines and producing twelve collections a year. See Marc Jacobs’s evolution in Vogue, from glasses-geek in baggy sweaters to one of the industry’s most celebrated talents in our slideshow above.

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